$650 million taxpayer dollars meant for EU water projects in Africa wasted, misspent, British Lords hear. Eurocrats reaction to their complicity in fraud and human misery, 'a grimace and a yawn'-BBC

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6/27/13, "EU aid to Africa badly spent, British inquiry hears," BBC

"A British parliamentary inquiry has heard that more than $650m ( £420m) worth of European Union aid to Africa may have been badly spent. 

The House of Lords Committee on External Affairs is looking into about $1.3bn worth of water projects in sub-Saharan Africa during the past decade.

Fewer than half of a sample of 23 projects met poor people's needs, the committee heard from EU auditors. The problems ranged from the planning stages to the projects' implementation."...

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BBC analyst Mark Doyle: News of squandered taxpayer money was "a yawn" to elites:

"In the hallowed atmosphere of the House of Lords - all oak-panelled walls and leather seats - the questioning was of course polite. 

Their Lordships had, after all, invited the EU watchdogs - the auditors who had spilled the beans - not those who had wasted the money. 

But I still expected a bit of outrage - after all, EU money is partly UK taxpayers' cash. 

But there was none - more a series of rather vague questions. 

Lord Jopling asked the most revealing question, and got the most revealing answer. 

He asked Mr Bostock if the reaction of Eurocrats to his revelations could be characterised by "a grimace and a yawn".

Mr Bostock replied, in a roundabout way: "Yes"."

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